Ingredient Spotlight: Dark Patchouli

Posted on July 28 2018

Our beard goods are crafted from all-natural ingredients, with scent compositions inspired by the seasons and built upon the tenants of natural perfumery. In this series, we shine the spotlight on the ingredients that make Dragonsea beard oils, balms and waxes so intoxicating.

There are few scents in perfumery more polarizing than patchouli. After all, two of its most notable heydays in history involve attracting hippies and repelling insects.

Native to Malaysia, and now grown in similarly hot and damp climates, patchouli has been used for its medicinal and skincare properties throughout history, but for good or ill, its scent will always be its most prominent characteristic.

Patchouli’s first brush with superstardom came in the 18th century when Chinese silk traders used its dried leaves to prevent moths from getting at their precious wares. Little wonder it soon became a scent associated with luxury, as it covered all manner of fine goods pouring from the East to the West.

Patchouli’s second time in the spotlight came from its ability to disguise the smell of another strongly-scented plant in the flower child era. With that also being the free love era, patchouli soon became associated with all manner of unbridled hedonism.

Funny then, that while patchouli has been shown to be able to actually prevent female moths from mating with the males, it came to have the opposite effect on humans.

When patchouli is mentioned in conversation, those who “don’t like patchouli” are quick to verbalize it. Nor it is necessarily pleasant, even to those who enjoy it, at full strength.

And certainly, as such a popular scent, there are a great many inferior quality versions of it out there. The variety we use, however, is a dark aged patchouli, and if it doesn’t turn you around on this ancient aphrodisiac, nothing will.

Taking our cues from the place of its birth, we used Patchouli as the deep, warm, mysterious base of Dragonsea, layered with other eastern equatorial-origin resins, florals and citrus fruits for a heady, sultry, exotic summer beard blend.